London Palestinian Prisoners Day 2018

inminds17 April 2018

London Palestinian Prisoners Day 2018 on the Southbank of the River Thames[+]

London Palestinian Prisoners Day 2018 on the Southbank of the River Thames[+]

#PalestinianPrisonersDay

To mark Palestinian Prisoners Day Inminds human right group, on Friday 13th April 2018, held a vigil on the Southbank of the River Thames in London to highlight the plight of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, and to demand their freedom.

Figures published in March 2018 show the Israeli occupation abducted 1319 Palestinians in the previous two months, including 274 children, 23 women and 4 journalists. As of 28th February 2018, here are around 6,500 Palestinians caged in Israel prisons including 350 children and 63 women including 6 minor girls. Over 500 Palestinians are held without charge or trial indefinitely under administrative detention orders.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "The Israeli occupation is enforced by terrorising the indigenous Palestinian population; abducting its children; and imprisoning anyone who resists. In many cases the formality of a charge let alone a trial or even a set length of sentence are ignored - people are just locked up indefinitely on the whim of the colonizer. During interrogation physical torture, even of young children, is standard practice as is sexual abuse of children. Women have been electrocuted into submission, and many prisoners like Arafat Jaradat have died under torture (72 prisoners in total tortured to death since 1967). If they survive the interrogation then they face the military court and its 'conveyor belt' trial system with its 'rubber stamp' 99.74% conviction rate. In no other country in the world is such injustice law."

Inminds chair Abbas Ali added "Some 20% of the Palestinian population of men, women, children and the elderly have been imprisoned by the Israeli military since 1967, every single Palestinian family has been effected. The prisoners form the cornerstone of Palestinian society, their suffering is felt in every home. We are here to show our solidarity with them and their families, and to demand their freedom from occupation dungeons. We are also here to demand that companies complicit in their suffering, like HP that provides the IT infrastructure for Israel's torture dens and dungeons, end their complicity in these war crimes."

The protest was very well received by Londoners with nearly a thousand leaflets on HP/HPE's complicity in Israel's torture dens and dungeons being snapped up in no time. Many Londoners, fed on a diet of BBC whitewashing of apartheid crimes, were oblivious to the reality of Palestinian prisoners, in particular to the existence of child prisoners, let alone to their torture and caging without charge by Israel. They stopped to talk to us and thanked us for providing information the media had hidden from them. Among the speakers was Rabbi Elhanan Beck from the anti-zionist Neturei Karta who spoke of the incompatibility of Zionism - a a racist colonialist ideology, with Judaism, and of a future of peace in the Middle East once apartheid Israel is dismantled and Palestine from the river to the sea is realised. He said as a Jew born in Jerusalem he was waiting for his Palestinian passport before he would return home. The crowd responded with loud applause.

London Palestinian Prisoners Day 2018 on the Southbank of the River Thames[+]

London Palestinian Prisoners Day 2018 on the Southbank of the River Thames[+]

London Palestinian Prisoners Day 2018 on the Southbank of the River Thames[+]

"How could it be possible to keep on living a life where one side is an occupier and the other side occupied? No independence is possible as long as it sustains itself through the occupation, oppression, and humiliation of others."